WASHINGTON: The general in charge of the war in Afghanistan said Tuesday there are “no silver bullets” for success there but that he expects to know by this time next year whether the troop build up is reversing the Taleban’s momentum.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, appearing before the House Armed Services Committee a week after President Barack Obama announced his new surge-and-exit strategy, said he supports the plan. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, who had voiced misgivings previously, also endorsed the new approach at the Capitol Hill hearing.
The new battle plan includes an 18-month timeline before the first US troops would begin to come home.
“Results may come more quickly,” McChrystal told lawmakers. “But the sober fact is that there are no silver bullets. Ultimate success will be the cumulative effect of sustained pressure.”
Eikenberry said the course outlined last week by Obama “offers the best path to stabilize Afghanistan and to ensure Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups cannot regain a foothold to plan new attacks against our country or our allies.”
Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., the committee’s chairman, said at the outset of the hearing that he differs with statements comparing the Afghan surge with the US surge in Iraq, saying that as a percentage of the total number of forces, the 30,000 or so authorized by Obama last week was a much higher proportion of deployment than when President George W. Bush ordered a surge in Iraq.
Skelton ticked off questions, asking what success will look like, how it will be measured, “what risk are we accepting in the next 18 months and how can we mitigate it?” he asked.
McChrystal assured Skelton that the troop infusion will work. “I believe we will absolutely be successful,” the general said.
The panel’s highest-ranking Republican, Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon of California, told McChrystal he was waiting to hear how “the president is not under-resourcing his own strategy,” since the general has sketched ways that as many as 80,000 additional US forces could have helped turn the tide.
Under questioning later from McKeon, McChrystal said he did not think he would need to ask for any more troops in a year’s time, but would not hesitate to recommend more if circumstances change.
He also told McKeon he did not recommend the July 2011 exit plan, but that he supports it. He said he made no recommendations at all about the exit plan.
